What's wrong with Flouride, exactly?

[Nikose Tyris]

Okay bit of a broad topic here, but I've been invited and pestered to join a bunch of anti-flouride things lately, and I'm actually kind of confused. Googling it only brought me to a big propoganda page that had nothing that resembled verified evidence or any real scientific backing, and the only thing they listed [despite labeling it repeatedly as deadly, toxic, going to kill me, etc] was flouridation of the teeth in young children, causing a white spotty appearance.


Flouride is naturally in the drinking water, and we add more to it in the city of Toronto that remains within the concentration levels as set out in health and safety guidelines.


I'm just really confused. Can someone explain the fear, and explain to me if it's justified?

[Aldurin]

I think this one of those things along the lines of banning hydrogen dioxide, given how flouride is beneficial in numerous ways. Really people should be focusing on real issues regarding unhelpful ingredients in products.

[akaSM]

Originally Posted by Aldurin

I think this one of those things along the lines of banning dihydrogen monoxide, given how flouride is beneficial in numerous ways. Really people should be focusing on real issues regarding unhelpful ingredients in products.

FTFY

I haven't seen anything like that around here...yet. If it's so bad, I wonder why a salt company advertises their product as "fluorada" (fluorinated).

[Aldurin]

Originally Posted by akaSM

FTFY

And that's why I'm not going into chemistry.

[Archbio]

Have you ever seen a commie drink a glass of water?

[bluestarultor]

Since I happen to be here anyway, basically fluoride being good for your teeth is unsubstantiated bullshit based on one guy observing one town back in the 1800s and despite all of its 2 inhabitants having disgustingly brown teeth from the high fluoride levels in the well water, nobody happened to have cavities at the time. From that point forward we've spent a good hundred years not going back and doing any fact-checking.

Some contested info asserts that fluoride collects in the brain and can cause developmental problems and such, which is why most toothpastes say kids shouldn't swallow them.

But, really, even if it's not causing brain damage, the fact of the matter is it's not helping our teeth, either. Better to just drop the whole thing and, y'know, actually study it for once than to find out in another 100 years our IQs should all have risen an extra 60 points and that it causes autism and cancer and herpesyphilAIDS.

[Marc v4.0]

Originally Posted by bluestarultor

Since I happen to be here anyway, basically fluoride being good for your teeth is unsubstantiated bullshit based on one guy observing one town back in the 1800s and despite all of its 2 inhabitants having disgustingly brown teeth from the high fluoride levels in the well water, nobody happened to have cavities at the time. From that point forward we've spent a good hundred years not going back and doing any fact-checking.

This seems a rather suspect presumtion.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

Originally Posted by bluestarultor

Since I happen to be here anyway, basically fluoride being good for your teeth is unsubstantiated bullshit based on one guy observing one town back in the 1800s and despite all of its 2 inhabitants having disgustingly brown teeth from the high fluoride levels in the well water, nobody happened to have cavities at the time. From that point forward we've spent a good hundred years not going back and doing any fact-checking.

Some contested info asserts that fluoride collects in the brain and can cause developmental problems and such, which is why most toothpastes say kids shouldn't swallow them.

Do you brush your teeth with toothpaste? Go look at your toothpaste tube, the primary ingredient is sodium flouride and the sodium is just an inert ion because you can't just package flouride.
Like yuo could argue that toothpaste doesn't work...?

Flouride has no negative effects unless you were to drink massive concentrated quantities of it, far more than regular quantities.
People complaining about it are quacks and generally are more concerned with the "big government" getting involved in public health when that hsould be the task of private doctors clearly.

As for the "I brush do I need it in water question" possibly not but there is no added harm in getting more of it, it will only help you.
This also takes us onto the other question people raised about random shit in drinking water- that is also all bollocks. I mean unless you live in Africa or something genereally public water is cleanear than bottled water which has all this random toxic shit from the components they use to make plastic.
And if you are filtering your own water you might still b e getting the flouride, it depends on how you are filtering. Some filters are designed to get organic molecules, some get various ions, some get particulates- it really depends.

[phil_]

I bet Dr. Strangelove was funnier back when the audience could pretend that the people in power couldn't possibly be that crazy.

Dr. Strangelove makes me cry and I never want to watch it again.

[Orcmeat]

Originally Posted by phil_

Dr. Strangelove makes me cry and I never want to watch it again.

That movie also greatly disturbed me. Much like the thought of being stuck in a Cracker Barrel during an earthquake. I mean, really; at what point did it become a great idea to hang farm utensils from the ceiling?

But in regards to the topic at hand.

This seems a rather suspect presumtion.

Agreed. While I'm obviously no fluoride doctor (my own studies having been completed in the related, albeit tangentially, field of looking on in helpless despair as something dubious transpires in the foreground), a thorough search of Wikipedia has revealed that a 2000 'systematic review' of the efficacy of water fluoridation demonstrated an association of fluoridation with decreased cavities in children. This suggests that there's been a few less years than 100 spent without fact checking.

Of course, the link cited is now dead. Take that for what you will.